There are many reasons for marriage to end in divorce. Irreconcilable difference between the parties, disappointments with each other, and changing priorities on the part of either one or both of the parties are but a few reasons for the bond of marriage, founded upon love, trust, and commitment, to deteriorate and, ultimately, to be torn asunder. In the United States, three out of every five marriages end in divorce as the parties to the marriage discover that they are not compatible with each other and attempt to move on without the additional baggage of their former relationship.

Marriages, however, do not end just because both parties decided to call it quits. The relationship between the two parties to a marriage is enforced by a contract and for this contract to come to an end, a decree.

Divorce proceedings, just like any other legal proceedings, require records. The law mandates the maintenance of these records. These records are used for background checks, especially in cases where one of the former parties to the marriage ever decides to get married again. Not only that, these records serve as a means for a higher judicial authority to check that both the procedural and the substantive due process that resulted to the end of the marriage had been complied with and satisfied. Such records are usually available to the public through government offices.

Morris County, Texas, was founded in 1875, and their divorce index records available with their district clerk have records of divorce decrees that date back to the year 1968. Certified copies of the decrees of divorce granted in Morris County are available from the district clerk of Morris County. Like every county in Texas, the Texas Public Information Act governs in Morris County. The Texas Public Information Act presumes that all public documents, with exceptions, are available to the public. Decrees of divorce are considered as public documents and come under the umbrella of the Texas Public Information Act.

In Morris County, the procedure to request for a certified copy of a decree of divorce begins with writing a letter of request to the concerned government agency, which, in this case, would be the district clerk of Morris County. The more information that could be provided to the district clerk, such as the name of the parties, the date that the divorce was granted, and other pertinent information, the faster that the search could take. It is important to note that any request from the district clerk to the person requesting the information should be complied with within ten days after the written order, otherwise, the request would be considered as having been automatically withdrawn.

In the state of Texas, it is possible to request for verification of divorce from the state government. This process is available through the Texas Department of State Health Services. The procedure begins with either sending a request through the internet using a credit card, or by filing a form downloadable from the website of the Texas Department of State Health Services and sending the same after it is completed through the mail. Such verification process can take anywhere from ten to fifteen days and costs twenty dollars.

With easier access to the World Wide Web, a second option available to those who wish to secure a copy or a verification of a divorce is to do the search online through the use of specialized online databases. Such databases are usually easy to locate and use. These databases are, more often than not, free to use and require only an internet connection to access. They are also almost instant with their results and do not require the person doing the search to fall in line in order to obtain a copy of the decree from the offices.